How did Toronto — a great global city of glass highrises and extensive transit — come to be the only city in North America actively removing bike lanes? This city has 20,000 daily cycle commuters [PDF], and a population density that is well above San Francisco’s. We’re talking about Jane Jacobs’ adopted home city here, removing bike lanes.

Toronto's Dupont bike lane is on the chopping block at City Hall. Photo: The Grid TO

The answer, of course, is Mayor Rob “Bicyclists are a pain in the a*s“ Ford and his coalition at City Hall. Toronto took the opposite tack of virtually every other city on the continent last summer when the city removed a bike lane from Jarvis Street, on one of the most important north-south thoroughfares.

Now the city is threatening to take out another one, reports Jake Tobin Garrett at Network blog Spacing Toronto:

According to a press release put out by Cycle Toronto today, the City will be creating an Options Report for Dupont Street that may include, with pressure from a certain councillor, the removal of the bike lanes.

From the mouth of Cycle Toronto: “Cycle Toronto strongly disagrees with Councillor Palacio’s intention to remove cycling infrastructure on Dupont Street. The Dupont Street bike lanes provide a safe passage under the Weston railway bridge, a location where a cyclist was killed and several others injured in recent years.”

According to Ben Spurr over at Now Toronto, Dan Egan, Manager of Cycling and Pedestrian Infrastructure, said that Transportation Services has not be directed to remove the Dupont bike lanes. However, given the current climate at City Hall and past actions that have seen councillors sneak in motions to remove bike lanes without public consultation (Jarvis, anyone?), cyclists can be forgiven for being a little jumpy on this issue.

With the removal of the Pharmarcy and Birchmount bike lanes last year, Toronto actually had a negative amount of bike lanes installed in 2011. This is something that we cannot let continue in 2012. We have to move forward.

Elsewhere on the Network today: Mobilizing the Region reports New Jersey’s debt-burdened transportation system is preparing for another round of borrowing, despite Governor Chris Christie’s pledges to the contrary. Seattle Bike Blog shares a video exploring Vancouver’s evolution as a bike friendly city over the past 30 years. And UrbanIndy tries to imagine a plan b, should the area’s grand plan for regional transit fail to win state support.

Keep getting the news out. Real Estate values in Toronto will plummet because the removal of bike lanes is not what young people want. Neighboring Ottawa or even Montreal will become a lot more interesting.

http://www.carfreebaltimore.com/ Mark

Toronto isn’t the only one. Baltimore removed a major bike lane in 2011. Why? Politics.

Anonymous

This particular bike lane was not well thought out. The railway underpass (pictured) where Dupont meets Annette and Dundas West has become a terrible chokepoint for traffic, including busses, going through that point. For commuters, the Dupont bus (which I take when not riding my bicycle to work) has become increasingly unrealiable as a result.

In general, facilitating an increased share of bicycles in the transportation mix is a good thing. But we have to do it thoughtfully. Unfortunately not enough thought was put into this bike lane.

Ian Turner

Good thing NYCDOT is required to consult with community boards before removing bike lanes.

Anonymous

@zeMinimalist:disqus It is not just real estate values, but tourism dollars. @comfyfur:disqus questions the quality of this bike lane and he may be right, I don’t know. But it is the whole cars-first rhetoric from Toronto that is scaring away us tourists. If I’m going on vacation, why go someplace with wide streets unfriendly to pedestrians and bicyclists? That’s not fun.

Montreal: here I come with an open wallet!

PaulCJr

Hopefully our Canadian brothers and sisters will rally to keep the bike lane. If it’s not good lane as
comfyfur stated, then hopefully the bicycle community will get together there and have another one installed very close by. I personally will be visiting Toronto this October and look forward to riding the city. See you Torontonians soon!

http://www.facebook.com/chris.corr Chris Corr

No, the bike lane has not been removed from Jarvis Street yet. I believe it’s scheduled to happen later this year. They are removing the unprotected lanes from Jarvis Street, and replacing them with protected lanes on Sherbourne Street, which is one street to the east.

Anonymous

Montreal is a far more interesting city with a richer history.

Shemp

Toronto is a fascinating case. Plenty of planning theorists see regional metropolitan governments as keys to combating sprawl, promoting transit and efficient planning, etc. Witness the devotion of beltways theorists like Brookings to largely failed federally-mandated institutions like MPOs.

Toronto actually implemented a regional government, and behold! Suburbanites now run Canada’s largest, most important city, with consequences like those chronicled here.

http://hanlonsrzr.blogspot.com/ Anthisthenes

Speak for yourself. It’s not “the whole cars-first rhetoric from Toronto that is scaring away us tourists” – tourists use transit or taxis, it’s the fact that Toronto has nothing a few dozen other N.American cities don’t have. It’s just not a ‘destination city’. Quebec, Montreal, and maybe Vancouver in the summer. NY, LA and Vegas (though I despise both), SF, and maybe New Orleans before Katrina. I am from Toronto, have lived in Montreal and Vancouver (also over-rated) and live in Tokyo now. I go back to Toronto for family, but do as little as I can there: costs more for less than an American or Japanese city.

http://hanlonsrzr.blogspot.com/ Anthisthenes

What’s your better idea for cyclists then? Oh… you don’t care.

http://hanlonsrzr.blogspot.com/ Anthisthenes

Look, I hate Toronto and think it is a bore with real-estate 100% over value, and I prefer cycling to driving; however, this is wrong: ” Real Estate values in Toronto will plummet because the removal of bike lanes is not what young people want.”
- young people have no money
- old people do
- bike lanes will not change real estate value for the whole city
- any change in the interest-rate will
- more slow-down in the Canadian economy will
- or the Chinese, where the inflationary money was coming from
- or a drop in oil prices (Canada is a producer)
- or the fact that the housing boom-bust cycle is due for a trough

Anonymous

Obviously Anthisthenes, I’d have to think about it. Giving people alternative transportation options is good. Purposely creating gridlock is not.

Ex-driver

That’s misleading. Toronto had a regional government for nearly 50 years that still allowed local control by constituent municipalities over things like bike lanes. What happened in the late ’90s is the local layer was removed and the regional layer remained as the only remaining level of government. That’s when the suburbanites started running the city. And Toronto’s “regional” government is hardly on the scale of a major MPO region; sizewise, it’s basically the equivalent of a single county in the US and doesn’t cover most of the metropolitan region. So it’s not big enough to do that job effectively either.

Anonymous

@Antisthenes:disqus As I’d been to Montreal 2 years ago, we considered going to Toronto this time. Toronto supposedly has great restaurants, and a cool vibe.
But, as I eat in restaurants almost every meal on vacation, I want to get some good exercise bicycling to counteract all those calories.

Montreal is exceedingly welcoming to tourists wishing to ride bikes. The hotel staff knew all about Bixi and were excited to show us how it worked. There was a station across the street, and everywhere we wanted to go. The protected lanes, paths, and large numbers of other bicyclists on streets without bike lanes made it seem so safe.

So why would I want to bike ride in a city where the mayor isn’t worried about my safety?

http://www.canary-district.com/ Canary District Condos

This is a one of the best city for bike lanes. Real Estate values in Toronto will plummet because the removal of bike lanes is not what young people want.

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